A Woman’s Work

A Woman’s Work

Harriet Harman doesn’t make being a female MP sound very appealing.
She was first elected in 1982, long before that distant nirvana of
‘fifteen, ten years ago’ described by Michael Fallon, when trying to
touch up young female researchers, lobby correspondents or political
activists was ‘acceptable’, just harmless ‘flirtation’. Some male MPs
believe they still live in that era; while one insisted that it
‘absolutely does not constitute harassment’ to call your female
assistant ‘sugar tits’ or to send her out to buy sex toys (one
vibrator for your wife; one for a constituency employee), another
admitted that sending ‘sexual chatter’ to a 19-year-old who wants to
work for you isn’t appropriate, even though, strangely, you’ve found
yourself sending such messages to more than one young woman.